The BJP, on the back foot until now, has firmed up a plan to take on AAP.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to challenge the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the issues of unauthorised colonies and sealing drive in the 12 May Lok Sabha polls in Delhi. The BJP, which was on the back foot till now, has firmed up the plan to take on the ruling AAP, accusing it of deliberately stalling the regularisation of 1,639 unauthorised colonies despite being approved by the Central government. The government has recently formed a high-level committee to examine the hurdles and suggest measures for regularisation of these colonies. The committee will submit its report within three months.
Similarly, the BJP has also sought to put the blame on the Supreme Court appointed monitoring committee for the sealing drive that has hit the trading community hard. Sensing a backlash from the traders or the Baniya community, which forms nearly 10% of votes in the national capital, the BJP will be launching an extensive campaign as part of the damage control exercise. Revealing the party’s strategy to deal with the subject, a senior BJP leader said: “We will tell the people of Delhi that the sealing drive in the city is by the order of the monitoring committee. The BJP-ruled Central government or the municipal corporations have no role to play. The members of the monitoring committee have resorted to anarchy.” The BJP has also accused the monitoring committee of “running an industry” in Delhi by sealing commercial properties.
Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said that the Narendra Modi government made the necessary amendments in the Delhi Master Plan to offer relief to traders. He alleged that despite several reminders, the Delhi government did not initiate the process for mapping of unauthorised colonies in Delhi and that essentially deprived these colonies from development works.
“During the tenure of Venkaiah Naidu as Urban Development Minister, the AAP government had sought two years’ time to put in place a mechanism for development of unauthorised colonies, but not a bit of work was done. Recently, the Kejriwal government has further sought two years to complete the survey of these colonies which is mandatory for beginning any development work. This clearly is a deliberate attempt by the Delhi government to deprive the residents of unauthorised colonies of basic amenities,” Puri alleged.
It may be noted that nearly 30% or approximately 50-60 lakh of Delhi’s population live in unauthorised colonies and they are a major vote bank. A large section of these voters had voted for AAP in the 2013 and 2015 Delhi Assembly polls. Regularisation of unauthorised colonies has been a poll plank for many years.